A tweet by CNN’s Peter Hamby sparked debate when he revealed that Ryan, 42, had told a Milwaukee Magazine that he’d once dated a black girl and had an 'African American sister-in-law.'
In the 2005 interview in Milwaukeemag.com Ryan said: 'I have a sister-in-law who is an African American. My college sweetheart was black.'
But the revelation has caused a firestorm of debate on the internet over whether the fact that Ryan dated a black woman matters at all.
The journalist who did the original interview with Ryan, Erik Gunn, told Mail Online today: 'I spoke to him some time ago, but I reported what he said at the time.'
Ryan’s communication Director Kevin Seifart, also confirmed to Mail Online that the comments made by Ryan about his then girlfriend were true.
Yet, among Ryan’s many friends and professors who knew him as a student at Miami University in Ohio in 1988, no one can seem to remember him stepping out with a black girl.
Kent Taylor, 40, a sports anchorman in Louisville, Ky., was a student with Ryan at Miami University but does not remember his girlfriend.
Another of Ryan’s fraternity brother’s, Gatewood Atwood, 42, from Kentucky, met Ryan in the spring of 1989 when the pair pledged for Delta Tau Delta.
He told Mail Online 'I don’t recall that [he ever dated a black woman.] It certainly doesn’t ring a bell. I don’t think he has anything against black people in any way shape or form so I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t have dated a woman like that. He is a great guy. But I don’t know that he actually did.'
A gifted student, Ryan studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science, graduating in 1992.
Whether or not he had a black girlfriend before he left for college remains to be seen.
Born into a catholic family in Janesville, Wisconsin, his parents Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Ryan and Paul M. Ryan, encouraged their children to get a good education.
Paul D Ryan was the youngest of four children, Tobin, Janet, and Stan, and was nicknamed P.D. after his initials.
At 16, the future Vice Presidential hopeful for the GOP had a job at McDonalds. But his carefree teenage years were cut short when he found his father dead from a heart attack, according to his older brother Tobin.
Tobin, 47, says his father’s death made Ryan more serious and this is why he later threw himself into his studies, and little else.
One of Ryan’s most outspoken professors at Miami, Professor William Hart is credited with helping Ryan to shape his libertarian views on economics.
Hart told Mail Online 'He was a great student. We didn’t socialize. But talk of an African-American girlfriend back then seems silly to me quite frankly.'
In April 2000, Ryan proposed to his girlfriend Janna Little, and later that year the pair married and had three children, Liza, Charlie and Sam.
As Ryan takes on the Vice Presidential role, a new NBC News/Wall Street journal poll shows that Mitt Romney’s problems with black voters are even worse than first thought.
The Republican candidate is capturing zero per cent of the African American vote, compared to the sustained popularity of President Obama among black voters.
And hours after it was revealed that Romney’s running mate’s black college girlfriend was up for debate, the biggest question asked on many blogs, was 'Does Paul Ryan’s black girlfriend even matter?'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2192514/Paul-Ryans-black-ex-girlfriend-Mystery-childhood-sweetheart-college-remember.html#ixzz24NRfdwkP
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